Brisket Trouble!!

[jping]

So I should have just taken a breath after how the day began yesterday and not put myself in a position to be smoking a brisket for my wifes whole family but here we are and I could use some help! To start yesterday we had some rain and I left my probe outside, ruined! So I ran to the store to get a new one and decided to get one of the cool bluetooth ones so I can be lazy and sit inside and not have to go to my Traeger! At that point I was actually thinking that I might have had a blessing in disguise because it looked cool! I got home and prepped my 12.5 lb Brisket and eventually put it on at midnight. I woke up at 3 am to my probe flashing and beeping at me. I went outside because I didn't know what was going on and lucky for me it did this because my Traeger had thrown an error and was no longer smoking. I fixed the problem and got it back on track, at this point I was at around 110 Internal I believe. I went back inside and set my alarm for 5 because I wasn't sure how this thermometer was going to work. When I woke up at 5 to check, my probe was saying 160 internal. Seemed pretty strange to me as it had been on smoke and nothing higher than that so I decided to remove the probe and insert it into a different location, same read. So at this point I went to my foil thinking that I had just purchased a fast cooking piece of meat! 30 minutes later my probe is reading 185 internal! Something isn't right here! The meat isn't looking like it is that far along either. I decided to pull the probe back out again and this time decided to place it into the flat above the point and it read 130 internal! I know that temp isn't a tell at when doing a brisket, and in the end I will go off of the tenderness with a toothpick or my probe, but this drastic difference in temperature is really starting to worry me when I was hoping to show off to the in laws today! (The brother in laws are still a little stand offish and this is my big chance!) So between a broken probe, traeger error code, and not sleeping at all, here I am! Any advice for how I should proceed? At this point I am in a crutch with my probe still in the flat above the point and reading 149 internal.

Thanks guys!

 

[noboundaries]

I just realized this thread is more than a day old.  Old news by now to you.  Sorry.  Let us know what you did and how it turned out.  Sometimes those adaptations on the run create fantastic results.

Without knowing anything more than what you listed above, it is obvious the 185 internal reading was in the point of the brisket.  It will ALWAYS read higher than the flat.  I've never seen a 55F difference, but it could happen, especially if your probe hit the fat seam between the point and the flat, and/or the point was toward the heat source. 

Part of the experience of growing delicious Q is literally experience.  You develop a sense of timing, which often enables you to forget about all the fancy gadgets.  All you need is a meat thermometer you can use to check the internal temp and tenderness.  Learning NOT to think about what is going on in your smoker is probably one of the hardest lessons to learn.  It is a little tougher with the electronic smokers, because they can error out, either by operator or system error.  Once you learn your equipment though, that gets minimized. 

If it was still yesterday, I'd say just keep it smoking for a 6-8 more hours before you check it again.

For timing purposes, here's what happens with a typical 12 lb trimmed brisket in a 225-250F smoker:

1. 38F to 140F: usually 3-4 hours.

2. 140-stall (anywhere from the 150s to 160s on average) - about 1-2 hours.

3. Stall, no wrapping: 4-6 hours.

4.  End of stall to probe tender in the flat: 4-6 hours.     

I don't probe or even look at a 12-14 lb trimmed packer brisket until it has been on the smoker for 12 hours.  It is NEVER done.  Usually just coming out of the stall to 10-15 degrees beyond the stall in the flat.  That's when I crank the heat up to 275F until it is probe tender.  I'll keep an eye on the climbing IT about every hour or so just to know how it is progressing.  It isn't unusual to see a 20F difference between the flat and the point soon after the stall, but the difference shrinks as the meat smokes toward probe tender. 

The one good thing about lessons learned in smoking, is you can always find something to do with most results, even the bad ones.  Chili, stroganoff, chopped beef sammies, smoked meat spaghetti sauce, etc, it all works, and that's my failure experience talking. 

So, how did it come out?

Ray

 

[tallbm]

I probe my briskets with 3 probes and I can tell you that they can display eye raising differences for sure  BUT once you start getting near 180F they seem to start getting closer and closer.  My probes are good to go as well so I have just chalked it up to the mystery of the brisket and what it does as it cooks.  I haven't seen this with any other cut of meat and this is why I probe with 3 temp probes to ensure I know one is likely to read properly.

Anyhow best of luck :)

 

[jping]

It got even crazier! In the end though it turned out pretty good. I had to crank the heat at the end and my bark got a little hard, but aside from that it was juicy and had a good flavor! I decided to make some burnt ends and those were a major hit! I will be making those every time I do brisket from here on out I think. Thanks for all the help!

 

[noboundaries]